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Protest at Papakura High

Students at Papakura High have been protesting after three kaiako involved with the school's Māori full immersion unit resigned.A hui is being held tonight for concerned students and their whānau after the resignations of the teachers, one of whom the Herald understands founded the rumaki reo unit.Videos posted to social media show dozens of students performing haka and confronting principal Simon Craggs, demanding answers about why trio have left and accusing him of forcing them out.Link to v...

Aotearoa name better represents country's identity,

So what should the country be called officially? Te Pāti Māori on Thursday morning is presenting its petition to Parliament calling for the country’s name to be officially changed to Aotearoa. It’s also calling for the Government to officially restore the Te Reo Māori names for all towns, cities and place names. Lobby group, Hobson's Pledge, has a petition of its own campaigning against the use of Aotearoa, and is calling for Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to publicly affirm that the count...

Tenants don't want to be moved

There are finally some new housing projects in the pipeline, including a state house development of 200 homes.But locals do not want it to further rip apart the suburb.Roopu-a-Iwi Trust supports local whānau and its office is in the heart of Maraenui, having been there for 17 years.Chief executive Maureen Mua said about a decade ago, Housing New Zealand ripped down many houses."By demolishing just under 100 homes, they replaced it with 7 two-bedroom units."Some of the them were removed because ...

Fears cultural significance

Matariki holds significant cultural and spiritual weight for many Māori and some fear the occasion could become commercialised or reduced to a homogenous celebration.Astronomer and maramataka expert Rangi Matamua, who spent decades campaigning for Matariki, is brimming with excitement for the holiday. So much so he is keeping count: Three weeks and two days.Matamua is the chair of the government's Matariki advisory committee and is also an adviser for Crown agency Te Arawhiti as it prepares for...

Matariki should not be commercialised

The first Matariki public holiday is less than a month away, and while excitement is building for many, some have raised fears about how it will be marked.Matariki holds significant cultural and spiritual weight for many Māori and some fear the occasion could become commercialised or reduced to a homogenous celebration.Astronomer and maramataka expert Rangi Matamua, who spent decades campaigning for Matariki, is brimming with excitement for the holiday. So much so he is keeping count: Three wee...

Māori Party backs calls for establishment of iwi-led

The Māori Party and the National Māori Authority are backing calls for the establishment of an iwi bank to finance building on Māori land.It comes after Māori housing advocates told RNZ red tape and barriers at the bank were preventing whānau building on their own land.The Māori Party proposed an iwi-led bank in their 2017 election policy, under the leadership of Marama Fox. Almost five years later, co-leader, Rawiri Waititi said the party still backed the idea.Lin...

Māori health leaders

Leading Māori health specialists will talk at a one-day symposium about the critical role rongoā Māori could play in the country's health and disability sector.Whanganui-based Whakauae Research Services says the symposium is a pivotal collaboration between Māoridom and Crown health agencies to improve health equity.The symposium, called Tū Mai Rongoā Symposium - Calling Forth the Mana of Rongoā, brings the Ngāti Hauiti research institute together with the Ministry of Health, ACC, the int...

The place for mātauranga Māori

Since colonisation, mātauranga Māori has been pushed aside by Western notions of science. Ngā Pae o te Māramataga research lead Dr Ocean Mercier explains how the two can coexist, and why it’s crucial for Aotearoa that they do.Around 800 years ago, Polynesian voyagers used their rich knowledge of stars, weather, currents, plants and wildlife to navigate across the expanses of Te-Moana-Nui-A-Kiwa to Aotearoa. As they established a society of iwi and hapū groupings across the islan...

Protest at Papakura High

Students at Papakura High have been protesting after three kaiako involved with the school's Māori full immersion unit resigned.A hui is being held tonight for concerned students and their whānau after the resignations of the teachers, one of whom the Herald understands founded the rumaki reo unit.Videos posted to social media show dozens of students performing haka and confronting principal Simon Craggs, demanding answers about why trio have left and accusing him of forcing them out.Link to v...

The Whānau experience of suicide loss

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Dr Rangi Te Kanawa:

As a child Rangi Te Kanawa was surrounded by weaving. Both her mother, Diggeress Te Kanawa, and grandmother, Dame Rangimārie Hetet, were lauded Māori weavers. Te Kanawa's formative experiences immersed in the world of harakeke are undoubtedly what led to her current work as a textile conservator and researcher.Of particular interest to Te Kanawa are customary Māori clothing dyes, which involved using an iron-tannate dyeing process that saw textiles submerged in iron-rich mud to inst...

‘Tsunami of cultural change’:

The culture wars have long raged across the Australian media and arts landscape, but the battle appears to have been won by progressives inside the nation’s museums.As the world’s museum directors prepare to make another attempt to come up with the definition of a museum, after years of controversy between conservatives and reformers, the heads of Australia’s museums have chosen their side.Seb Chan, president of the Australian Museums and Galleries Association, says choosing what to collec...

Councils ignore Māori advice

Last year it was the Matariki Fireworks Spectacular at New Brighton Pier, this year it will be the Winter Fireworks Spectacular.Māori experts advised that using fireworks was unsuitable as a way of celebrating the inaugural Matariki public holiday, but some councils ignored the recommendations.A group set up to ensure that Māori mātauranga (knowledge) was at the forefront of decisions warned fireworks caused pollution, waste and were at odds with the idea of remembrance.Māori astronomers war...

Call for govt to help Māori out of unhealthy homes:

The government needs to prioritise getting Māori into their own warm, dry, affordable homes as they continue to be disproportionately impacted by the housing crisis, a public health expert says.It comes following criticism that red tape and barriers at the bank are preventing whānau building houses on their own land.Massey University professor of public health Chris Cunningham said while most Māori tamariki were born healthy, too many were born into a risky home environment.He said ...

Hey, Siri:

Opinion: I orea te tuatara ka puta ki waho. This whakataukī translates as: "A problem is solved by continuing to find solutions." It refers to the need for creative thinking, adaptability and perseverance. To solve a problem, you need to have all of these.It is easy, when we are interacting with voice assistants on digital devices or customer services phone lines, to feel we are wrong in how we speak and understand languages. But the problem lies with the inability of speech technology to ...

$28m fund to safeguard

Associate Minister of Māori Development Nanaia Mahuta has announced almost $28 million to help enact the recommendations of Wai 262 across legislation and the public service as part of Budget spending.Wai 262 calls for protection and authority over indigenous species, traditional knowledge, Māori symbols, designs, and other cultural property.It was the first contemporary claim filed with the Waitangi Tribunal in 1991. That set off off a 20-year inquiry during which several of the original clai...

Watch: The Hui meets 20yo dying of heart disease -

This livestream has finished. Watch this episode here or in the embedded link below.Tonight, The Hui meets a 20-year-old wahine from Whangārei dying of heart disease - the same condition that killed her twin brother.With heart disease the number one killer of Māori, The Hui also looks at a new trial being launched in Waikato taking heart healthcare into homes.Then, Ōtaki artist Hohepa Thompson - currently known as Hori - is on a mission to make the name Aotearoa official.And later, ...

Rituraj Sapkota: RNZ, te reo Māori, Joe Bennett column -

I had just flown from Kathmandu to Dubai and my connecting flight to Auckland would have a stop in Kuala Lumpur. Not the shortest trajectory but quite similar to the social media maze I had to navigate to get to this piece. Someone on Facebook had shared a Spinoff article which had a link to a Twitter thread, which had an image of a newspaper cutting of this article in the Otago Daily Times. The Twitter thread belonged to the radio journalist this columnist was taking a shot at, and the piece ha...

Auckland singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriter Apera Woodfine (Te Ātiawa) was fluent in te reo as a child. As a young kura kaupapa Māori student from Devonport, Auckland, he was “totally immersed” in the culture."Back at that time I only spoke Māori at school, you weren’t allowed to speak English,” the 28-year-old said."After I moved away from that school I basically lost the language because I was speaking English every day."Link to video and article: Auckland singer-songwriter rediscovers te reo Māori thr...

Te reo lunchtime class

Nelsonians pressed for time are now learning te reo Māori during their lunchtimes at NMIT.The institute offers free mātauranga Māori classes in te reo and tikanga Māori in a weekly one-hour lunchtime session.NMIT curriculum manager and head of Te Toki Pakohe Misty Ormsby said incorporating te reo Māori into our vocabularies would be of “huge benefit” in future, so it was important to make learning more accessible.The course, Te Reo Māori me ngā tikanga o Te Tauihu, is descri...

Young mum couldn't find baby clothes with Māori designs –

When Georgia Taiapa (Ngāti Porou) found out she was pregnant last year, she was “shocked” and disappointed by the lack of affordable clothing featuring Māori designs for her soon-to-be born daughter.“I would spend hours looking at baby products online. I’d always wanted my children to wear traditional Māori clothing but there just wasn’t anything.“I realised I’d have to come up with something myself.”Link to article: Young mum couldn't find baby clothes with Māori design...

Northland iwi and DoC upset after great white shark

A Kaipara iwi and the Department of Conservation (DoC) are reminding people of the rules surrounding marine life after a juvenile great white shark - believed to be an accidental by-catch - was left on a beach, and later butchered.Te Uri O Hau and DoC were informed recently of the dead great white being left at Tinopai."A call was received by our DOC HOT number on Sunday, May 15," DoC operations manager Stephen Soole said."By the time staff were able to respond, we were advised that only the tai...

A pocket-sized booklet

If one hand-crafted booklet could get her sister through a tough time, Ruby Gibbs wondered if a pocket-sized toolkit could help others struggling with mental health.It was around this time last year that the sister’s friends approached Gibbs with concerns about her wellbeing.She didn’t want to be overbearing, but the 30-year-old had a degree in psychology and wanted to help.Sitting down with some colouring pencils, she made a little booklet to remind her sister of some tips and tricks to hel...

Manu Kōkiri

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'Get them off the streets':

An Auckland councillor is calling for action as communities live in fear of being caught up in a turf war between the Killer Beez and Tribesmen gangs. Overnight police were called to seven shootings that are believed to be linked to the gangs. The first four took place last night in Ōtara, Papatoetoe, Flat Bush, Papakura, and Te Atatū. It's understood two further shootings happened early on Wednesday morning, with one on a street in Mt Albert and the second on Rathgar Road in Henderson.&n...